


The Path Of Betrayal..

by xXFireSagaXx



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25017781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXFireSagaXx/pseuds/xXFireSagaXx
Summary: What If Tana Wasn't Betrayed..
Relationships: The Mystic | Andrea Russett & The Savant | Joey Graceffa, The Mystic | Andrea Russett & The Thespian | Tyler Oakley, The Novelist | Alex Wassabi & The Vaudevillian | Gabbie Hanna, The Saloon Girl | Tana Mongeau/The Vaudevillian | Gabbie Hanna
Kudos: 3





	The Path Of Betrayal..

**Author's Note:**

> The story begins moments before the Path of Betrayal is found..

"Oh no, who's that?" Alex points at a guard in the back of the yard.  
"What the heck.."  
"He's guarding something."  
Sireen marches onward, ignoring the group's ever-growing questions and concerns.

"If you seek the unquenchable fire, two must be chosen to walk the Path Of Betrayal." The guard booms, and the group begin to wonder if its' even human.  
Allison steps into the light.. "Discuss amongst yourselves."

"If we have to send in two people, I feel like it should be two people that haven't proven themselves yet." Tyler says, in an effort to save himself from another potential death.  
"Joey and Andrea?" Gabbie adds. If someone has to go into this, it better not be her. Sure, she's not the best puzzle solver, but she's doing her best.  
"I feel like that's easy."  
"They're the only ones.." Andrea's taken aback, how could they mention her! She's done so much! It's not her fault Gabbie keeps undermining her skills. A sudden urge makes her want to snap, but she chooses against it.  
"That's easy and fair."  
"Okay, I guess-" Joey begins. Why doesn't he care! Does he want me gone!? Do not make me do this.. "I guess we're going in." Joey, you're a great person, but stop talking. You're making things worse..  
"Do you take that with you?"  
"Do you think that's fair?" Tyler continues. 'No, I don't,' Andrea wants to say.

Andrea huffs. "You haven't, I haven't." She doesn't want to go in, of course she doesn't, but if it'll prove she's a good asset to the team, she may as well get it over with.. "Let's just go in."  
"Yeah, you're right, it is fair." Joey agrees. 

Two people are gonna be chosen to walk the Path of Betrayal, and the only two that haven't proven themselves yet are Joey and Andrea. For once tonight, Tyler's pretty happy he did a challenge..  
"Oh my god, okay."  
"Guys, you can do this."  
"We believe in you."  
Allison sees the determination burning in Andrea's eyes. She hands her a jewelled coat, and wraps it over her shoulders. "Thank you."  
"Okay." Andrea follows Joey to the first scroll, and they begin to read..

"Along the path are five riddle boxes, each containing a key. To make it past the second guardian, you will need to gather three keys. You must each walk the path separately, and only one of you will be able to gather enough."  
Joey takes a deep breath. Now's his chance. Do the riddles, get the keys, get out. This'll be easy..  
"Here's the talisman." He offers it to the guard..  
"Ready?" Despair fills Andrea's voice.  
"Yeah.." Andrea hasn't really proven herself, so Joey feels a little good about his odds. "Let's go."  
The guard steps away, and the challenge begins..  
"We love you." Tana says, and her heart breaks for the pair..

"Where's the box!?"  
"Oh, okay!" Joey runs off the path, and into the bushes.  
"Where's the box!!?" Andrea repeats. She's struggling, so at this point, she doesn't know who's going to make it out alive..  
"You feel yours but never see it, never will." Joey reads from his first box. He thinks for a moment.. "Soul?" He's trying to solve it as quick as he can, but he has no idea... "I have to find a different one." He sighs, and makes an attempt to try to hide the box within the leaves from Andrea.  
Andrea hears Joey struggling, and she feels like she may actually have a chance..  
"Hell yeah!" She says, and reaches up to grab a box..  
"Is there any more.." Joey whispers under his breath, looking around Andrea's area.  
"Oh, here's one!" Joey crouches down, and reads.. "Okay."  
"30 white horses.." Andrea fiddles with her box. "I have no clue what this could be.." These riddles are really, really hard. Andrea starts to wonder if she'll even get one to open. 

“Ugh, I don’t know what to do.” Joey sighs, and Andrea’s starting to feel like she actually stands a chance of winning.  
Joey looks across at Andrea, and realises she's struggling just as much. "Should we work together on this!?”  
“I don’t, I don’t think we’re allowed.” She responds. Only one of them is getting out of here, and Andrea will do whatever it takes to make sure its’ her. If Joey has to die, then.. she’ll worry about that later. 

Joey finds his next box.. "Runs smoother than any rhyme, loves to fall but cannot climb..” What could that be!? Waterfall? Fall? “Water!” The sudden realisation hits him, and he rushes to enter it in the box. “I got a key!” Andrea immediately regrets declining his request.  
In an attempt to get back on track, she gets back to her box. “30 white horses on a red hill. First they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still." It makes no sense to her, so she reads it again.. "Oh! Chomp and stomp!” Now she gets it. “Teeth!”  
The box opens.. “I got a key too!”

Joey grabs his key, and rushes off to the one he hid away.. "You feel yours, but never see it and never will.” Soul didn’t work. “Lungs or air?”  
Andrea turns around, and realises she’s yet again fallen behind..  
“Oh! Heart! It’s heart!” He gasps, and quickly puts it in.. “Yes, one more!” Yep, really regretting saying no to that offer.. 

Andrea's lost. She's convinced that she's looked in every place more than once, and yet, she can't find anything. Joey's definitely going to win. She has no doubts on that..  
"I found my last one!" Joey yells. Andrea doesn't know how to react. Should she be happy, mad, upset? All she knows is that Joey better not know this riddle..  
"I speak without a mouth, and hear without ears. I have no body, but come alive with wind. What am I?" It's the easiest riddle Joey's heard all night. "Echo." And then, Andrea starts to panic.. Joey puts echo into the box.. "Yes, yes, yes!"  
Joey is beyond ready to get out of the Path of Betrayal, but then he sees Andrea's face, and he feels crushed. What monster has he become. He doesn't know what's going to happen to her when he shows the guard his keys, and he doesn't want to. 

"Joey, please!"  
"I'm sorry! I gave you a chance.." He sighs. Andrea sighs, so much for being independent, huh.. "I have the three keys." Joey shows them to the guard..  
"Joey, I'm sorry! Let me help!"  
The guard speaks in another stone-cold voice... "Lift high in the air to melt the heart of the ice witch." The guard hands Joey the unquenchable fire, and he heads on into the cave.  
"Joey, let me go through!" Andrea runs to the gate, but the guard blocks her path. She has no choice but to accept defeat..

"What the heck is this!?" Joey asks, and his voice echoes in the darkness. He runs to a table, and reads its' note.. "Choose the friend whom you will betray. Smash their name upon the ground, and the Ice Witch will be revealed."  
His heart stops. The Path of *Betrayal.* He should have known.. 'You are the YouTube killer.' She was right. And I killed her for it. And now I have to kill someone else.. He looks through the names..  
"Gabbie, Alex, Tyler, Tana." He's just glad Andrea's name isn't in the pile.  
Without thinking, Joey moves Alex's name out the way. He's too good to die now.  
He looks down at Gabbie, Tyler and Tana's names. He wishes Andrea was here with him.  
Who's he kidding? He wouldn't listen to her, just like he didn't listen to Lele last time.. Tyler and Gabbie won challenges, and Tana hasn't.. He picks up Tana's name, and holds it high.

"Joey!" Andrea lies down on the cold brick floor. They didn't lie. It truly is the 'Path Of Betrayal.' A single tear drops to her cheek. She shouldn't be doing this. She should be fighting for her life. Why is she giving up!? "What are you waiting for?" She screams at the guard, who doesn't react. "Just kill me!" The guard shakes their head slowly, and Andrea starts to feel like this may not be the end of The Mystic after all. 

He's about to throw it down, but he stops. 'No, No. Let's split it.. I'll go with you..' The voice of a girl longing to help the group plays over and over again in his mind. Each time being ignored or refused.. He can't help but feel bad for her. She wants to help.. He sighs, and realises what he was about to do. He lowers his frozen hand, and puts Tana's name above Alex..  
Gabbie or Tyler..  
Whichever one he chooses will literally be killed. Joey remembers The Murder Journal. 'Glozell Green. You killed Glozell Green. And now you're killing someone else..'  
Gabbie saved Destorm.  
Tyler tried to save Liza.  
Gabbie succeeded, Tyler didn't. Deep down, Joey knows he shouldn't be choosing who should live based on another person they didn't save.. But, he has no other way of deciding it. Joey closes his eyes, and picks up Tyler's name.  
"I'm sorry Ty, I really am." He squints his eyes closed, and drops it.. The shattering makes him scream, and it echoes through the cave.. His stomach hurts, his head is overflowing with worries, and he feels like he should go instead. What has he just done!?

Tana, Gabbie, Tyler and Alex stand outside the path. They don't know what to do. Tyler feels guilty, he just doesn't know why. Maybe it was because he put his two friends' lives on the line..  
The guard comes alive..  
"Guys, guys!" Gabbie's the first to notice, and the guard pulls out their sword.  
"What-" Tyler whispers..  
"Guys!" The guard walks closer, edging over to the group.  
"No! No! No! No! No!"  
The guard heads for Tyler, and the group are split.  
"What did I do!?" Tyler shrieks. But, he knows what he did.. "Why me!" They killed Joey and Andrea, and now they're here for me.. "What did I do!"  
The sword strikes Tyler down, and the guard walks back to its' original place..  
Tana's heart is racing, Alex is close to tears and Gabbie, she's outraged..  
"Oh my god! What happened! He's dead!"  
The three of them rush to Tyler's body, a withering mess on the grass.. "I thought it was one of them!"  
"Oh my god.." Tana's too scared to react..

Joey opens his eyes, and looks down at the mess of broken pottery. What did he just do.. Then, like magic, a doorway behind him glows blue.. 

"You may now enter." The guard says, and steps away from the cave..  
"What-" Andrea's shocked. She really thought this was the end. She's been given another chance at life, and she will never waste it again. She rushes past the guard, and into the cave..

"Joey!"  
"Andrea!"  
Andrea looks around at the three names of her other friends. "What happened here-"  
"I- I don't even know." She can tell he's a mess of emotions, so she doesn't ask any other questions.. "This doorway just opened.. So, I think we- Do we go in?"  
"You tell me!" Andrea laughs.

Before they can walk through it, a woman appears from the other end. She must be the Ice Witch. She's a human snowflake. But before the pair can take in her beauty, she blows them a kiss.  
"No!" Joey shrieks, and reflects it with his unquenchable fire.. The witch screams, and falls to her knees. Smoke fills the room, and when it goes, the witch is nowhere to be seen.  
"Where's the gem!? Did she leave the gem!?"  
"Wait, wait, what's this?" Andrea asks, picking up a scroll. "Your path is complete, return to your friends."  
"What the heck, we don't even get a gem!?"  
"She didn't leave us the gem!"  
It makes Joey so angry that Tyler just died, and they didn't even get what was promised..

Andrea and Joey jump over the steps of the exit, and run into the murder-scene.  
"Guys! Tyler's gone!"  
"Tyler's dead!"  
Andrea struggles to comprehend what happened. I lived, so Tyler died- The realisation hits her like a knife. He died because of me..  
"We had to walk the Path Of Betrayal, and we had to betray one of you guys." Joey sighs.  
"We!? No! You did this Joey!" Andrea wriggles her way out of Joey's hug, and stands with the others. "You did this."


End file.
